We have recently completed our 3d Annual Danish IT Outsourcing (ITO) vs In-House Development Survey 2012 and are ready to share its most thought-provoking findings with you. The survey was conducted between April 17 and May 31, 2012 and was completed by the 695 Danish companies, of which 382 were IT / software development outsourcing companies and 313 – companies developing their IT solutions in-house.

Recapping the results:

Top three drivers of IT Outsourcing in Denmark:

Reduction of operating costs (OPEX)

Focus on core competences and business development

Time-to-market (TTM) acceleration

Top three most decisive factors in the choice of an ITO destination among the Danish companies are:

The available vast IT talent pool

Proficient English language skills

Low costs in general

Top three most decisive factors in the choice of an ITO partner in Denmark are:

Successful test / pilot project completion

Flexible contract terms

Positive references from industry peers

Top three challenges of the outsourced software development:

Poor communication with vendor’s project management / executive teams

Cultural difference

Lack of appropriate resources on ITO vendor’s side

Top 3 ITO business models:

Project outsourcing (fixed price / time and material)

Own software development team

Dedicated Development Center

Nearshore (close to / up to 2 time zones away from Denmark) remains the most popular outsourcing destination (cited by 47% of survey respondents, which is up 10% from 2011). Offshore (2+ time zones away from Denmark) remains the second most popular outsourcing destination (cited by almost 44% of companies, which is up 16% from last year).

As shown by the preliminary results of the 2011 Austrian IT Outsourcing and In-House Software Development Survey, poor communication with vendor’s project teams and management is the major challenge facing Austrian companies that outsource their IT / software development to third parties.

IT Sourcing Europe, a UK-based market intelligence company, is about to close its 2d Annual Austrian IT Outsourcing (ITO) and In-House Software Development Survey 2011 that has been in progress since early October. While the final findings are yet to be analyzed and released, the preliminary results allow picturing some of the key hallmarks of today’s Austrian ITO landscape.

According to the survey, the top three ITO challenges in Austria are: poor communication with vendor’s project teams and management (reported by over 40% of survey respondents), lack of appropriate resources on vendor’s side (reported by over 38% of participants) and change management (reported by over 30% of respondents).

Of those companies that point to poor communication with ITO vendors, around 70% engage via the project-based outsourcing models (fixed-price, time-and-material) and only around 3% – via the own software team model. Of those companies that report poor resource pool on vendor’s side, more than 60% partner with small ITO vendors (less than 50 by headcount) and only less than 5% – with large providers (1000 and more). Change management is the biggest issue for almost 75% of small companies and less than 10% of large companies.

Overall, the prevailing majority of survey participants – more than 55% – believe that outsourcing their development / QA functions has been the right decision, while less than 10% are very dissatisfied with their outsourcing engagements.

To date, the base survey sample is comprised of the 312 outsourcing companies. The survey will be available online until October 28, 2011. The final results will be compiled into a comprehensive Austrian IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011.

Acquia, a commercial open source software company providing products, services, and technical support for the open source Drupal social publishing system, has recently released 2 new white papers: “The Drupal-Powered Enterprise” and “Drupal Commons for Building Enterprise Social Communities”.

Inside the papers:

How Drupal delivers as the platform that drives a scalable content infrastructure

Three distinct approaches for producing multiple web experiences

Calculating the Drupal difference

The underlying drivers for social business software

How Drupal Commons meet the requirements of a social solution for organisations

Examples of how Drupal is being used in enterprise-grade social business sites and more

The 1Q 2011 European Gaming & e-Gambling Analytical Review is based on the results of country-specific IT Outsourcing Surveys 2011 conducted in the frames of the All-European IT Outsourcing & In-House Software Development Research 2011. The following countries were surveyed between February and May 2011: United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Malta, Finland & Denmark. Representative sample was comprised of the 205 gaming and e-Gambling companies that outsource their software solutions nearshore (1-2 time zones away from home country) and/or offshore (2+ time zones away from home country).

Ratio of nearshore to offshore outsourcers surveyed was 42% to 58%.

The Review will be officially published in September 2011. You can subscribe here to receive the review 1 month prior to its official release.

Jesper Bagger, Project Director at Berlingske Media, shares his company’s outsourcing experiences at the ITB Conference “Off-Shore – How easy can it be?”

Berlingske, the oldest Danish media house with a 262-years history, moved a substantial part of its software development to Kiev, Ukraine, in 2010. The key factor driving a corporate decision to outsource nearshore was the search for savings. In Ukraine, an IT developer costs about half of the Danish one and the price difference between the Danish and Ukrainian IT consultants is even greater. (more…)